Friday, February 19, 2016

For a long while now, I have had in mind to
write an article on the topic of specific techniques of thought
manipulation by way of propaganda. In modern-day America, the use of
propaganda is common-place in virtually every media source available.
We have this manipulation on TV, movies, magazines, internet
publications, video games... Just about every medium employs propaganda in one form or another.

The question of who or why may be
answered in another article some time in the future, but for the
moment, the matter of definition is of first priority. To be
personally educated on the matter of informational accuracy is vital
in a free and open society, I believe, and the ability to discern
between fact and fiction is of key importance as well (as many times, both
fact and fiction are communicated side by side with little or no
obvious distinction). This article is intended to open the eyes of
the reader so as to provide the tools necessary for discerning the
information they perceive.

Propaganda is a favored tool of
manipulative governments around the world, and has been for ages. It
may be surprising to some that this method of thought, feeling, and
behavioral manipulation has been habitually employed by the American
governance for decades, but the fact stands. Wikipedia provides a
fairy extensive list of historic uses of this propaganda
throughout multiple war-time ad campaigns, as well as numerous
situations of foreign tension, throughout American history.

World War I

“The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government
came during World War I. The government enlisted the help of citizens
and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate
the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down (guns,
gunpowder, cannons, steel, etc.), the U.S. government produced
posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own
vegetables in "victory gardens". The public skepticism that
was generated by the heavy-handed tactics of the Committee on Public
Information would lead the postwar government to officially abandon
the use of propaganda.”

World War II

“During World War
II the U.S. officially had no propaganda, but the Roosevelt
government used means to circumvent this official line. One such
propaganda tool was the publicly owned but government funded Writers'
War Board (WWB). The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it
has been called the "greatest propaganda machine in history".
Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films
made to justify US involvement in

World War II.

In 1944 (lasting
until 1948) prominent US policy makers launched a domestic propaganda
campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to agree to a harsh
peace for the German people, for example by removing the common view
of the German people and the Nazi party as separate entities. The
core in this campaign was the Writers' War Board which was closely
associated with the Roosevelt administration.

Another means was
the United States Office of War Information that Roosevelt
established in June 1942, whose mandate was to promote understanding
of the war policies under the director Elmer Davis. It dealt with
posters, press, movies, exhibitions, and produced often slanted
material conforming to US wartime purposes. Other large and
influential non-governmental organizations during the war and
immediate post war period were the Society for the Prevention of
World War III and the Council on Books in Wartime.”

The Cold War

“During the Cold
War, the U.S. government produced vast amounts of propaganda against
communism and the Soviet bloc. Much of this propaganda was directed
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, who
himself wrote the anti-communist tract Masters of Deceit. The FBI's
COINTELPRO arm solicited journalists to produce fake news items
discrediting communists and affiliated groups, such as H. Bruce
Franklin and the Venceremos Organization.”

The Iraq War

“In early 2002,
the U.S. Department of Defense launched an information operation,
colloquially referred to as the Pentagon military analyst program.
The goal of the operation is "to spread the administration's
talking points on Iraq by briefing ... retired commanders for network
and cable television appearances," where they have been
presented as independent analysts. On 22 May 2008, after this program
was revealed in the New York Times, the House passed an amendment
that would make permanent a domestic propaganda ban that until now
has been enacted annually in the military authorization bill.

The Shared Values
Initiative was a public relations campaign that was intended to sell
a "new" America to Muslims around the world by showing that
American Muslims were living happily and freely, without persecution,
in post-9/11 America. Funded by the United States Department of
State, the campaign created a public relations front group known as
Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). The campaign
was divided in phases; the first of which consisted of five
mini-documentaries for television, radio, and print with shared
values messages for key Muslim countries.”

As we see, the United States governance
(an organization which boasts freedom, equality, and liberty) has historically used this
manipulative method not only upon the citizens of potential, foreign
adversaries, but on its own citizenry. As stated before, this has
been going on for nearly a century, unbenounced to the American public. Although, the legal
propagandization of the American public officially began in 2012.

This topic is an area of interest at
Stanford University. Two researchers, Manzaria and Bruck, wrote an extensive essay which provides
specific examples of how this propaganda is used in modern society to
sway attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

"The previous
picture and poem is a clear example of propaganda which is a form of
persuasion used to influence people's attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors. A working definition of propaganda is the spreading of
ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring
an institution, a cause, or a person. While propaganda has been
around for almost a thousand years, only recently (last 100 years)
with the advent of technologies that allow us to spread information
to a mass group has it evolved to a scientific process capable of
influencing a whole nation of people. While propaganda is most
evident in times of war as in the poster, it is constantly being used
as a political and social means in even less obvious ways to
influence peoples attitudes. This is currently evident with all the
election commercials on TV, where the candidates are using propaganda
techniques to elevate themselves above their competitor. Another
place propaganda is being exploited is by the use of the media in its
portrayal of countries that have nuclear technology.

Modern propaganda uses all the media
available to spread its message, including: press, radio, television,
film, computers, fax machines, posters, meetings, door-to-door
canvassing, handbills, buttons, billboards, speeches, flags, street
names, monuments, coins, stamps, books, plays, comic strips, poetry,
music, sporting events, cultural events, company reports, libraries,
and awards and prizes. It is most likely that some of these media
uses are surprising, but that only serves to show how easy it is to
not even recognize propaganda as such. For the purpose of our paper
we will focus on mainly the usage of the press in their tactics of
shaping people's opinions. The press (newspapers and magazines) is
important because the most current news and issues are spread every
day through them. The Dune affect is a term we coined--after
the movie Dune--which explains that those who control and have access
to media have access to and potential control of public opinion.

Indeed, propaganda is so powerful
because everyone is susceptible to it. This is true as explained by
Robert Cialdini, an expert in influence, because people exist
in a rapidly moving and complex world. In order to deal with it, we
need shortcuts. We cannot be expected to recognize and analyze all
the aspects in each person, event, and situation we encounter in even
one day. We do not have the time, energy, or capacity to process the
information; and instead we must very often use our stereotypes, our
rules of thumb, to classify things according to a few key features
and then to respond without thinking when one or another of these
trigger feature are present (Cialdini 6). While this makes people
highly susceptible to a propagandist who understands persuasion, in
general it is the most efficient for of behaving, and in other cases
it is simply necessary. Additionally, propaganda includes the
reinforcement of societal myths and stereotypes that are so deeply
embedded within a culture that it is often difficult to recognize the
message as propaganda.

For example I just used a persuasive
technique that propagandist use all the time by introducing Cialdini
as an expert. The heuristic this follows is the obedience to
authority and is a rule that when someone credible and in this case
by title of an expert, a person will automatically believe the
information to be correct. "Titles are simultaneously the most
difficult and the easiest symbols of authority to acquire. To earn a
title normally takes years of work and achievement. Yet, it is
possible for somebody who has put in none of this effort to adopt the
mere label and receive an automatic difference" Cialdini 181).
After all, what really makes Cialdini an expert?"

If there is one thing I appreciate
about instruction of this type, it is the way that these authors
brings to the attention of the reader that these tactics can be used
without the consumer ever realizing they are being propagandized.
This also calls attention to the fact that in order to build an immunity to
this type of manipulation, one must develop a greater level of self awareness, and an awareness of the media they frequent. The article continues.

"Since
propaganda has become a systematic process it is possible to analyze
how the media has used it in shaping our opinions about France having
a nuclear bomb verse Pakistan. Propaganda can be broken into ten
stages when analyzing it in detail. These stages are: 1) the ideology
and purpose of the propaganda campaign, 2) the context in which the
propaganda occurs, 3) identification of the propagandist, 4) the
structure of the propaganda organization, 5) the target audience, 6)
media utilization techniques, 7) special various techniques, 8)
audience reaction to various techniques, 9) counterpropaganda, if
present, and 10) effects and evaluation (Jowett and O'Donnell 213).

While it is possible to go into detail
about each point, we are mainly concerned with numbers six and seven:
What techniques the media uses. There are many techniques and
persuasion tactics the media uses to disseminate information. We will
specifically focus on three case studies in the France / Pakistan
nuclear issue that highlight different tactics the media use. What is
important to understand about all the tactics is that no matter which
one is being used they all follow the same criteria: it must be
seen, understood, remembered, and acted upon. Thus, propaganda
can be evaluated according to its ends and interestingly enough this
is the same criteria that advertiser use every day in ads, and
commercials in "selling" a product."

This portion of the Stanford article details one
specific example of a propaganda campaign directed at influencing the
opinions of Americans with regard to the respective nuclear programs
of two separate countries. These are France and Pakistan.

"Studying media
coverage of Pakistan’s nuclear achievement, it becomes clear that a
certain amount of propaganda was used to make Pakistan appear
threatening. The fact that Pakistan developed the technology was not
what shaped the articles, but rather how this information was
presented to the reader. In a sense, the propagandists were looking
to turn Pakistan into an enemy of sorts, a country to be feared,
instead of embraced.

One method used to by propagandists to
create an enemy is through the technique of social proof. One way in
which we process information is by observing what other people are
doing that are similar to us or linking them to social norms. "When
we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or
ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and
accept the actions of others as correct" (Cialdini 106). Since
it is almost impossible for the common American to be an expert in
nuclear cause and effects, he looks to what others say as a means to
form his opinion. This allows him to be persuade to an ideology not
of his own. Furthermore, it is possible to rely on past stereotypes
as form of linking one idea to another group.

For example, articles that took such an
approach attempted to use a subset of social proof, where one casts
the enemy by declaring it to be a friend of an already established
enemy. For instance, in order to persuade the American public to
think of Pakistan in such terms, media will link Pakistan to
historically defined United States enemies such Libya, Iran, Iraq and
the former Soviet Union. This tactic plays on the principle of social
proof in which people look for justifications to quickly form their
beliefs. Thus, linking to a country America already has shared
beliefs about quickly allows one to associate and project the
existing beliefs on the new group, which in this case is Pakistan."

These examples are significantly
revealing with regard to how persuasive, and yet undetectable these
methods of propaganda can be. Below is an even more extensive list
of the tactics of manipulation used against the American public (as well as the citizenry of many other countries) on a
daily basis. These methods are tested over the course of decades, and
proven to be effective in swaying public opinion in any direction
that is most advantageous to the propagandists (as well as their
employers). The following is an excerpt from a report from Southern
Methodist University which details multiple devices used by
propagandists.

"Propaganda
makes use of a collection of devices and tricks intended to influence
your thinking. What follows is a compendium of these techniques
synthesized from several sources. Some of them are related and may
overlap. Learning to recognize these techniques can go a long way
toward immunizing yourself from the effects of propaganda.

Ad Hominem Attack: If you
can't refute the argument, attack the person presenting the
argument. The intent is to discredit said person, as well as to
distract you and make you think the argument has been refuted.

Apology: Sometimes a
corporation will make a public apology for something it has done.
If that something is really bad, the technique may not work.

Appeal to Authority; Some
"higher authority" is invoked as evidence in support of a
claim. Always be sure to check out that authority.

Appeal to Emotion: A
common fallacy. A "sob story" is used to support a claim.
The problem is that the sad story doesn't really represent the
whole picture.

Appeal to the People: A
common fallacy of attempting to support a claim on the basis of
popularity. Remember that something that "everybody knows"
can be wrong.

Arguing from Ignorance: A
common fallacy of claiming that some hypothesis is true based on
lack of information. Think of claiming that something seen in the
sky is an alien spacecraft because we have no other explanation at
hand at the time. If you have no information, all you can say is
that you don't know.

Assertion: An Assertion is
a simple statement of something as fact, usually with enthusiasm
and without regard for whether it is true or not. It is a common
feature of modern advertising. An Assertion is usually repeated
often for maximum effect.

Astroturf: "Astroturf
lobbying" is a term attributed to Senator Lloyd Bentsen (TX).
It refers to "grass roots" movements which are actually
created and funded by corporate interests. This technique of
lobbying can be very effective but is also very expensive. See
Sharon Beder's paper in Public Relations Quarterly, Summer 98. Also see the
Front Groups entry.

Bad Science: This refers
to research that is biased, poorly done, or containing major flaws.
It can also mean a "scientific" claim that is not based
on research at all. Appropriate misrepresentation can distort good
science into bad science.

Bait and Switch: This is
an old technique from both retailing and politics. In retailing it
means advertising a neat product at a low price, then saying it is
"out of stock" before offering you a more expensive item.
In politics it can mean underestimating the cost of some program;
it is also called lowballing. The technique is very deceptive and
not easy to detect in advance. It is not hard to find government
programs that cost far more than the initial estimates that were
used to sell it.

Bandwagon: "Everybody
is doing this." You've heard that before. The idea here is to
convey the notion that if you don't get aboard you will be left
out.

Begging the Question: This
is simple circular logic. You make a claim, then "support"
with a reason whose meaning is simply a restatement of the claim.

Big Lie: A Big Lie is an
outright falsehood presented as fact. The conventional wisdom is
that such a lie, repeated often enough, will be accepted as truth.
The harder it is to debunk the lie the better.

Buzz: Buzz is a cultural
phenomenon used to promote a new product. The idea is to use
word-of-mouth campaigns to create "buzz" about the
product (or idea) such that others will think that they absolutely
must know about it.

Card Stacking: This can
also be called Cherry-Picking. The propagandist uses only those
facts and details that support their argument. The selected reasons
are used to support the conclusion. You will get misled if you do
not notice that important details are missing. The worst part of
card-stacking is that it can be very difficult to detect if you are
not really knowledgeable about the subject.

Cartoons: Cartoons can be
used to convey a false impression. Consider a cartoon portraying
some politician as a demon of some kind; the visual impression can
be influential.

Celebrities: It is helpful
to make shrewd use of celebrities, like film stars or athletes.
Having one introduce and praise you at a public appearance is good.
This will start you off with a favorable impression. Having movie
personalities endorse candidates is a good strategy.

Comic Books: A larger form
of Cartoons. These can tell a story in cartoon form. The favored
characters can be portrayed as superheroes. Comic books are
inexpensive to produce, which is one of their advantages. Another
is the visual nature of the medium.

Composition: A logical
fallacy wherein an assertion is made about some part that is not
true about the whole.

Concision: Concision is an
unfortunate result of the structure of broadcast journalism. The
time segments (between breaks) are short. Complex points simply
cannot be made. Only simple and concise statements can be
accommodated. This tends to restrict the topics to very
conventional subjects.

Controlling the Message:
This is a strategy of planning exactly what the public message will
be and then sticking to it. "It is critical to develop a set
of key message points: simple declarations of fact relevant to the
fact pattern. Once they have developed key message points,
professionals practice them and keep delivering them succinctly and
repeatedly in response to media inquiries." (Ingrid Cummings)
See PR students examine crisis situations. The idea is to plan
responses in advance and not deviate from them. All people speaking
to media follow the same line - no exceptions.

Demonizing the Opposition:
This is done by portraying the "others" as something
evil, disgusting, etc. Example: Stating that anyone wanting to do X
is a bigoted racist.

Disinformation: This
technique is simply the release or planting of incorrect
information for the specific purpose of deceiving the audience.
Disinformation can contain elements of truth, but the payload is
the lies.

Divide and Conquer: This
tactic is a devious attempt to label the propaganda user as a
reasonable and moderate entity between competing groups. The tactic
can be extremely sneaky and use a lot of misinformation, distortion
and outright lies. See Building Bridges and Splitting Greens from PRWatch.org.

Division: A logical
fallacy in which an assertion is made about the whole which is not
true for all of the parts.

Doublespeak: This is the
use of language and words carefully constructed to conceal the
actual meaning. Euphemisms work well here. For example, "enhanced
interrogation" actually means torture.

Echo Chamber: The more
sources there are for a claim or idea, the better it looks. An Echo
Chamber is a loose network of outlets that tend to copy each
other's material, all of which (on one topic) is traceable back to
a single source. Bogus stories or information echoes through this
system, seeming to come from multiple reliable sources.

Either/Or Fallacy: This is
the False Dichotomy fallacy. It consists of framing the issue to
make it appear that there are only two options. One option is made
to look terrible, with th implication that the other option
presented is the only choice.

Evading the Issue: Did you
ever see a politician who didn't do this? When asked a tough
question, the speaker gives an answer to something else. They may
really emphasize "peace, justice and the American Way,"
but the answer does not respond to the question. This is not hard
to detect and is very annoying.

Extrapolation: This is
simply making spectacular predictions on the basis of very few
currently available facts. Such predictions tend to be extremely
unreliable. Physicist Niels Bohr is credited with "Prediction
is very difficult, especially about the future."

False Analogy: To
facilitate explanation, a complex issue may be portrayed as similar
to a simple issue that everyone can understand. The trick with this
technique is for the simpler issue to really not be a good
comparison, but rather be close enough to pass. With clever design,
the misleading simpler model will misdirect thought about the
complex issue.

False Cause: The order of
some sequence or set of events is confused with actual causation.
In propaganda the confusion is intentional. See Post Hoc, Ergo
Propter Hoc.

Fear: This technique is
simple - warn the audience that some disaster will overtake them if
they do not do what is suggested. If this succeeds, the audience's
attention will be deflected from details or merits of the proposed
action and toward what can be done to reduce the fear. When coupled
with incomplete information, uncertainty and doubt, the fear
technique can be very effective. Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD)
take advantage of general ignorance.

Forged Documents:
Forgeries are an excellent method of planting disinformation. The
media will often pick these up and circulate them widely.
Governments will use this tactic to create a diversion or justify
some action. They can also have other uses; remember the Killian
memos of the 2004 Presidential campaign.

Front Groups: These are organizations that purport to
represent one agenda while in reality being funded by someone with
different ideas. The name of the front group is often Americans for
_______. Fill in the blank. It is usually interesting to find out
who is bankrolling the group.

A good example was reported
in the Dallas Morning News for 22 April 2011. A local-option
election was coming up in Mesquite to allow the sale of beer and
wine in stores. The DMN reported:

Thre was fear that the large retail chains were
strong-arming Mesquite when a group called Save Our Stores invested
six figures to back alcohol in the 2007 campaign. Meanwhile, the
treasurer for the opposing group Save Our Children was citing
family values - only to be exposed as a beer and wine retailer in
neighboring Balch Springs who stood to lose Mesquite customers.

Glittering Generalities:
These are vague, broad statements that will connect with the
audience's beliefs and values. They really don't say anything
substantive. Slogans make great examples. The vagueness means that
the implications, though varying for different people, are always
favorable. Think of peace, freedom, justice, family values, etc.

Greenwashing: [attempting
to promote the idea that a program or policy is environmentally
friendly]

Guerilla Marketing: There
are a lot of ways to get a message, whether commercial, political
or other, out into the community. See 100 marketing weapons on gmarketing.com. Many of these methods have
the advantage of costing nothing.

Image Manipulation:
Today's image manipulation software makes this easy. The tactic is
to produce a fake photograph by altering a genuine one, then
release it into the wild. If the fake is well-done it can get a lot
of mileage (and effect) before the hoax is exposed. Photos can also
be staged for effect. Pictures which appear to tell a great story
can be actually staged and posed.

Junk Science: This is a
label applied to honest scientific and public interest groups,
while the term "sound science" is applied to "science"
which is biased in the direction desired.

Misinformation: Sometimes
a public statement contains information that is not true, although
not by design. It was not done deliberately. If propaganda contains
untruth it is deliberate.

Name-Calling This is the
use of negative words or labels to create prejudice against some
person, group or idea. If you fall for this you have been driven to
reach a conclusion without examining the evidence.

Plain Folks: The person
speaking will adopt a demeanor that makes them look like
"everyman." They will appear to connect with the audience
and their point of view. Careful choice of clothing, vocabulary,
and mannerisms is necessary to make the identity connection.

Poisoning the Well: The
"poisoned well" tactic is really a pre-emptive strike at
the opposition. They are labeled as evil, stupid, corrupt, criminal
or something else bad. It is not necessary for the derogatory
information to be true. Once this is done, anything the target
person or group says will be taken less seriously. See the Wikipedia note.

Policy Laundering: A tactic
of excusing unpleasant government actions on the grounds that "the
internation treaties require it."

Political Code Words:
Words which, on the surface, look reasonable enough, but call on an
unstated assumption to promote some agenda. Example: The idea that
the President's job is to "Protect America." Sounds good.
If, however, you check the President's oath of office you will find
that the President swears to "preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United State of America." Very different.

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc:
A common fallacy. It confuses temporal relation with causation. The
fallacy is that since B came after A, then A must have caused B.
Consider that there may be several possibilities for what caused B
and the time relationship could be just coincidence.

Product Placement: How
many times have you seen a TV show or movie in which you saw
recognizable products? An April 19, 2006 bulletin from Broadcasting
and Cable opened with "Two thirds of advertisers employ
'branded entertainment' -- product placement -- with the vast
majority of that in commercial TV programming."

Push Poll: This is far
less a poll than a propaganda technique. It will use a "question"
which actually implies something unfavorable about the subject of
the question. A push poll question is often used to spread
misinformation about someone or something. Suppose a pollster asked
you "Would you be inclined to vote for Senator Fiddle if you
knew he had a drinking problem?" Your answer to the question
is not important; your ultimate reaction to the drinking problem
allegation is.

Quote Mining: This can
also be called Quoting out of Context. It is often possible to lift
a short quote out of a speech, essay, etc. and make it appear to
say the opposite of what the speaker/writer meant. The real meaning
is obvious when the quote is seen in its full context, but that
context is conveniently omitted. Be wary when you see short quotes,
particularly on controversial subjects, that are standing outside
of their full context. You don't know what has been omitted.
Political campaigns can produce some of the worst examples of quote
mining.

Repetition: Did you ever
see a TV commercial run twice in a VERY short time period?
Advertisers know that a message must be repeated many times for it
to be absorbed. The same goes for propaganda (see Big Lie above).
Pres. Bush (G.W.) is quoted as saying "See, in my line of work
you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth
to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." In
propaganda, truth is squishy and hard to find. See The Ostrich Approach, 6th paragraph.

Straw Man: The user of
this tactic invents some misleading picture of an opponent's views
in order to attack it. The straw man tactic involves misstating an
opponent's ideas so that the fake view can be knocked down easily.
Since the original idea has been misrepresented and distorted, the
audience may think that the original idea has been knocked down
when only the fake straw man view has been hit.

Swiftboating: This
originated in 2004 with an anti-Kerry campaign that undermined Sen.
Kerry. The idea is to concoct a story with just enough truth in it
to use as a smear campaign.

Talking Points: A talking
point is a simple key message or idea. A number of these can be
compiled and used whenever dealing with reporters. The user will
stick to the listed messages and focus attention on them. They are
to be used to answer any tough question in one form of Evading the
Issue. They are also very annoying.

Testimonial: This
technique has a well-known someone endorse, recommend or approve of
a product, cause or program. Pop celebrities can work well here.
Remember that testimonials aren't worth much, particularly if the
endorser is not an authority in the field.

Transfer: This is an
effort to transfer your approval of something you respect and
approve of to another something that the propagandist wants you to
approve of. Flag-waving helps.

Vagueness: Watch for this
everywhere, even in news reporting. It can be a form of
disinformation. "Remember the first rule of disinformation
analysis: truth is specific, lie is vague. Always look for palpable
details in reporting and if the picture is not in focus, there must
be reasons for it." (Greg Sinaisky) See Detecting Disinformation Without Radar.

Video News Releases: This
relatively recent trick involves preparing a message (often an ad)
in a video sequence which looks exactly like a news item. TV
outlets will often pick these up and use them in news programs
because it saves production cost."

Until I found this gem of an article, I did not actually know that the
methodology behind thought manipulation held so many different facets. (It was actually relieving to find it, as I initially thought that I
had to compose such an extensive list on my own.)

It is vital that each of us know these devices, and become aware of their use wherever they may turn up.
When any source starts to employ these tricks in tandem, this is a
warning sign that the source is either completely ignorant and/or
unaware, or may have manipulative intent behind their communication.
(It should be noted though that no one is completely perfect, and
mistakes may be made from time to time. However, if a source layers
these tactics in multitude, they are most likely untrustworthy.)

It is unfortunate that a country such as the United States--a country
which boasts such liberties as freedom of choice--would resort to
habitual and systematic manipulation, stifling, and over all limitation
of that choice. Such a country seems only to wear a mask of such
freedom, while under the surface, functions as something much
different. Freedom of choice is not an optional privilege, as much of
governance and the corporate world seem to believe. It is the right of
every human being, and I believe it is about time that we all remembered
this foundation principle. The sooner we all become aware, and learn these tactics of
manipulation, the sooner we can become immune to them, which will, in
turn, give those of present and future influence incentive for actual
honesty and sincerity.

It has been on numerous occasions that I have personally witnessed these
tactics used in both corporate media, and even a number of sources
which wear a title of "alternative media". These seemingly alternative sources typically speak on topics of interest to the alternative community. However, their use of the exact same devices of government propaganda as listed above reveal them to be just as manipulative as these government and corporate sources. In this age of independent truth-seeking, it is imperative that
each of us learn to recognize these tactics, and to watch for them in the sources
we frequent (and also to avoid using such tactics ourselves). If we see them, it is important to raze a flag. Many of those in these communities seem to be skilled at recognizing the
use of the “fear” tactic, and this is positive progress. Lets become just as aware with regard to
the rest.

I started DTM because I
feel that informing the masses is the most positive and impactful
thing I am able to do at this point. I work at my articles as though
each one were my job, as I don't quite have the health to keep an
actual job right now. Somehow, I get more energized when I know I'm
having a positive impact in the lives of others.

Right now, I rely
upon donations and ads to keep my site going. Ideally, we would live
in a world free of the need for money of any kind. We will have that
world very soon, I believe, but in the mean time, I depend upon this
task to sustain me as I do my best to be dependable to you, my
readers. I hope “Discerning the Mystery” is a truly positive and
progressive experience for you.